I boot my mac up and the screen only has a file icon on it.

if you can, boot with a boot disk and try to repair the disk.

I would try starting the machine up in single user mode you do this by booting your machine up and then immediately press and hold the command (Apple) key and the s key. If you do not know how to reboot press down the command-control-power key at the same time.

Once you get white text appearing on a black background at the command line prompt type /sbin/fsck -fy then press return. The machine will then go through some testing and then hopefully it will tell you that your hard drive is okay. If it says that the file system has been modified run the comand again i.e. /sbin/fsck -fy When the fsck command reports that your hard drive is okay type reboot at the prompt and then press return. Hopefully your computer will boot up okay after this.

With regards to the blank screen, this usually indicates an issue with the hard drive being faulty (hardware) or the OS might have corrupt system files (software).
These are the items you will need before we begin:
A. Mac desktop/laptop B. Mac OSX Installation DVD
A. Software Related
1. Power on the Mac computer/laptop and immediately press and hold the option key. 2. After about 15 seconds of holding the option key, release it and insert the Mac OSX DVD. 3. The DVD should load and display on-screen (along with any additional drives available on the system). 4. If the hard drive icon appears, then click on it. (if the hard drive boots the OS, then the issue is software related. Skip down to Section B, step #1). 5. If the hard drive did not appear, then the system does not recognize it. However, the DVD icon should have appeared, click on it. 6. The DVD will boot and begin the installation process. 7. Follow the installation prompts. 8. Once completed, the desktop/laptop will reboot and after logging in, will execute the registration process. 9. Complete the registration exercise and access the desktop. 10. Perform a software update and download all system and application updates to their latest versions.

B. Hardware Related
1. Power on the Mac computer/laptop and immediately press and hold the option key. 2. After about 15 seconds of holding the option key, release it and insert the Mac OSX DVD. 3. The DVD should load and display on-screen (along with any additional drives available on the system). 4. If the hard drive icon appears, then click on it. (if the hard drive boots the OS, then the issue is software related. Restart the computer and skip up to Section A, step #1). 5. If the hard drive did not appear, then the system does not recognize it. However, the DVD icon should have appeared, click on it. 6. The DVD will boot and begin the installation process. 7. Close the installation application and select "Disk Utility" from the "Utilities" menu option. 8. When Disk Utility loads, look to the left-hand pane and locate your hard drive (if detected). If so, click on it and format the hard drive then reboot and skip up to Section A, step #1. If the hard drive is not detected, then the hard drive has malfunctioned and needs to be replaced.
Hard drive's cost from $40-100 for sizes ranging from 40GB to 1TB. Once the hard drive has been replaced, you can install OSX from the installation DVD.

Suchisart,
If you want a stand alone backup solution, you can download a free program called "Carbon Copy Cloner" and purchase a USB 2.0 external hard drive. You can use the CCC software to backup the entire contents of your Powerbook's hard drive or just selected files to the external USB hard drive.

If your Powerbook is unable to boot into OS X and you need to recover the files that are on the internal hard drive, you can boot the Powerbook into "Target Disk Mode" and transfer the files via firewire cable to another Mac. To do this do the following.

1. With both Macs off connect them with a firewire cable.
2. Turn on the Powerbook and hold down the "T" during startup.
3. Once the large icon shows up on screen your in "TDM".
4. Turn on the other Mac and login to your account.
5. The Powerbook's hard drive should mount on your desktop.
6. You'll be able to transfer your files from the Powerbook's hard drive just like you would an external hard drive, thumb drive, etc.

Don't forget to vote and leave us some feedback. :)
Thank you,
Scott Computer Services http://www.scottcomputerservices.com

This is an icon indicating that the iBook G4 cannot locate the bootable Mac OS X volume on the hard drive.

Here is a procedure you can use in order to get back to your main desktop:

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I am going to have you take your Mac into Safe Mode to see if we can't remove a possible folder(s) that may be affecting your Mac's start up function.

Try these steps:


-SAFE BOOT MODE-
• Reboot your Mac
• Upon restarting your Mac, press the Shift key.
• Hold the Shift key until you see a White Screen with Gray Apple icon and eventually a spinning gear.
• When you see the Spinning gear, release the Shift key.
• Allow the Mac to continue booting up. Also this may take a little while
(NOTE: this may take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to load to the Safe mode screen depending on the performance of your Mac, but if it exceeds this time, shutdown your Mac and try just once more. It may have just frozen up the first time around for you.)

• You are going to enter the Safe Mode (which looks like your main desktop environment - the only difference is certain startup items are disabled.)

• Once within the Desktop in Safe Mode
• From the Finder Menu, click Go> Go to Folder
• Type in this line: /System/Library/StartupItems
• This path, is going to take you to the System Library folder which has all of your Mac OS X Startupitems.
• Remove all of those folders to the Trash.

*Reboot your Mac normally and see if you can access your normal User desktop environment.

If this does not work, it could mean the Mac OS X directory on your iBook G4 may be damaged or corrupted. So the best step you can take to try to correct this without losing any data from your Home Folder(s) is to run an Archive and Install, with your Mac OS X installation disc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

What this process consists of (using your Mac OS X install disc),is removing the damaged or corrupted Mac OS X directory and replacing it with a brand new directory.

This procedure also allows you to save your applications, files and folders without the old directory no longer in the way of interfering with you accessing those files.

-ARCHIVE AND INSTALL-

• Start up from your Mac OS X Install Disc 1 or Install DVD. Please remember to use the install disc that matches the current operating system your system haves.

Usually, you can start from the disc by putting it in your computer, restarting, and holding the C key.
• Hold the C key until you see a White screen, with a Gray Apple icon and eventually a Spinning gear.
• Release the C key only after you see the Spinning gear.

-Your mac will now boot from the disc and load into the Installer environment.

• Select your language. The Welcome to the Mac OS X
Installer window appears.
• Click Continue. The Important Information window appears.
• Follow the prompts until you get to the licensing agreement screen
• An agreement sheet appears. If you agree with
the license agreement, click Agree. Then Select a
Destination window appears.
• Click the volume that you wish to install to (your primary
hard drive).
• Click Options. The installation options sheet appears.
• Select Archive and Install.
• Select the volume which already has Mac OS X installed.
• You should also select Preserve Users and Network
Settings, to preserve network and Home directory
settings.
• Click OK.
• Click Continue to begin the installation.
• Once the Archive and Install is completed, when you reach your desktop be
sure to run all Software updates to bring your new
Mac OS X directory back
up to current.

Also, if you look inside your Macintosh HD icon on your Desktop, look for a folder entitled "Previous System Folder" which will have all of your previous Home folder files prior to the Archive and Install.

Here is the link (below) from Apple for more information about how to locate the Previous System Folder

How to locate Previous System Folder (after Archive and Install)

If you don't have a Mac OS X installation disc, let me know.

Regards,

-Mactechtrainer

since apple drives are formatted in HSF+, a file system that windows cannon read, the chances of it even being bossible to run anything on it from a PC is very very slim.

have you tried putting the mouse icon to the bottom of the screen? that is a setting on macs it takes a few seconds to show the icons. if that doesnt work try going into settings and putting it back to default or factory reset of settings.

Hello
If your hard drive is full, then it can cause this problem. To empty the hard drive, deleting the files that you don't want anymore, you will have to use another Mac, and plug a firewire cable between the two.
Then press on the "T" key on your G4 (for target mode). You should see on the other mac's desktop your hard drive and everything in it. You can use the free software Disk Inventory X to get rid of the files that take too much space and that you don't need.
If that's too complicated, you can also try to boot the mac holding the shift key at startup, that will deactivate extensions and you will probably have access to your desktop. Then empty files and reboot.
Hope this helps

This icon means your computer is unable to access the operating system it was using last time it started up. This may not mean your computer is broken. My recommendation is to get your MacOSX installation disc (probably Leopard, maybe Tiger) and put it in the drive. Then hold down the Option key and turn the computer on. Keep it held down until you see a row of large buttons with icons on them. If you don't see your MacOSX installation that's on your hard drive, select the DVD with your OSX installation disc and click the right-arrow button on screen to boot from that disc. Once it's booted you can do diagnostics using the software on there. If you do see your OS, select it and the arrow to start up.

Sometimes this can happen if you boot your computer from an external drive and then don't set it back to your HDD, but usually it will figure it out on its own and won't give you that icon for more than a second. Best of luck!

Could be hard drive crash.. Try loading MAC OSX from CD to see if it will fire up.